Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) mischievously lampooned the request by a fellow senator that an Army brigadier general refer to her as “Senator” rather than “Ma’am.”

“Thank you for calling me ‘Senator’ and not ‘sir,” McCain said with a mischievous grin as he began an interview Thursday night on Sean Hannity’s “Hannity” show on the Fox News Channel.

As a tease at the top of the show, Hannity had played an exchange – widely circulated on YouTube – in which Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) scolded an Army brigadier general who had called her “Ma’am.”

Boxer, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, was addressing Brigadier General Michael Walsh of the Mississippi Valley Division of the Army Corps of Engineers during a hearing on New Orleans hurricane and flood prevention.

“You know, do me a favor: Could you say ‘Senator’ instead of ‘Ma’am’?” she said. “It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title. So I’d appreciate it.”

The brigadier general replied: “Yes, Senator.”

After McCain’s quip, Hannity said with a big chuckle: “If I called you ‘Ma’am,’ I’d really be in trouble. But we’ll get into that later in the program. You know what: You’re as big a trouble maker as I am, by the way – for the record.”